When I say mistaken, I do not mean mistaken in the sense that our churchpeople might apply the term to him; for our church people seem tomisunderstand him, almost as greatly as he misapprehends the purposes ofnineteenth-century Anglo-Saxon Christian workers. But mark my words,sir, you will soon, in England, hear of this young 'infidel' lecturer;for with his keen brain, his invincible logic, his concise and beautifulrhetoric, he will soon be recognized as the most popular livingagnostic. His home is not far distant from Bellevue, and I havefrequently heard him lecture. I think him the best platform orator Ihave ever listened to, though I have twice been charmed by the eloquenceof Phillips, and a dozen times by that of Beecher. I shall not outrageyour own and my own manhood by alluding to anything which the morepartisan church people say of this brilliant agnostic; and I say what Ido, only because in your distant home you may some day wonder just whatis behind an agnostic demonstration such as he is leading up to, andwhich is certain to centralize the dissatisfied spirit of the countryinto an anti-church propaganda of no mean proportions. I am opposed tosuch a movement; but I believe in truth as the only durable weapon, andI love truth for truth's sake--I should refuse to enter the gateway ofheaven if liars were admitted. I cannot go into the history of this man,but this much is fact: There are reasons which cause him to believe thatin striking at Christianity he is performing a highly praiseworthyaction. In this belief he is as sincere and as enthusiastic in his coldlogical way, as is any Christian in _his_ belief. If duplicity werepossible to this man--or if he could have found it consistent with hissense of right even to keep silence concerning his opinion on religioussubjects--he would by this time have been Governor of Illinois; and,with his ability, there is no elective office in the country to which hemight not aspire with reasonable certainty of success. He himself isaware of all this, as are all who know him. At the early age ofthirty-three, before his views were generally known, he was ourAttorney-General. No political party will ever again dare to nominatehim for an office."

"This is all wrong," I said; "it savors of religious persecution."

"True," said Castleton, "it does; but the fact is as I state it. Hewould if he ran for office lose enough votes from his own party to allowhis opponent to win."

"But, my dear doctor," I said, "I fail to catch your reasons forthinking this man mistaken. You surely would not have him be untrue tohimself?"

"Oh, no--never that! I mean that he is intellectually mistaken inthinking that the world is still to be benefited by agnostic agitationamong the masses. Voltaire had a good reason for proclaiming andteaching his views, because in France, in his day, religious infidelitywas necessary to political liberty. Tom Paine had a good reason for hiscourse, because Christianity, misrepresented at that time by mistaken orcorrupt men, was arrayed on the side of the despot, and so continued upto the beginning of the French Revolution. But this man has no goodexcuse for a fight against church influence in the United States, now in1877. The influence of the Christian church is now certainly exerted forgood, and does not attempt to restrict the liberty of any man, or ofsociety."

"But did you not just say that this agnostic's views would foreverprevent his election to public office, here in this great free country,in the year 1877 and onward?"

"We cannot have a free country and not allow a man to vote againstanother, even if his vote were influenced by the cut of a candidate'strousers."

"Yes," I said; "but if the cut of a candidate's trousers influenced aman's vote, such a man would be a good object for education. Youragnostic would no doubt say that the influence of church is to be foughtso long as it judges of a man's capability to do one thing well by hisopinion on a totally different subject."

"You will never educate the people out of their prejudices; but I myselfshould vote against this man because his course shows his views to beinconsistent with statesmanship. No person desires to restrict another'sindividual opinions; we only combat this man's because of their effects,as he combats those of his opponents. There are as many agnostics,proportionally, that would not vote for a Presbyterian, for instance,for public office, as there are Presbyterians who, under likecircumstances, would not vote for an agnostic."

"But in what way does the belief, or want of belief, of an agnostic,prevent an otherwise able man from being a statesman?" I asked.

"No doubt some of the best statesmen living are agnostics; but they arenot agnostic agitators. Men who are able to digest and assimilateagnostic opinions, are able to initiate those ideas for themselves; andonly men who are able to properly digest and assimilate such ideasshould have them at all."

"Can you," I asked, "state an instance in which what you indicate aspremature education of the masses in agnostic ideas, might lead toinjury to the persons so instructed, or to society at large?"

"Yes, sir, I can. Your ignorant American--the 'cracker' element of theSouth, your ignorant Italian, and your ignorant Irishman are injured bytaking away their religious beliefs. The first of these, when churchpeople, dress neatly, are honorable, and have some upward-tendingambitions; whilst those of them that are infidels are reduced--men andwomen--to a state of ambitionless inertia and tobacco saturation--if noworse. The two latter are either under religious control, or undersecret-society control. If the lower-class Irishman or Italian,unendowed with judgment to rightly use the little knowledge he alreadypossesses--to properly interpret his own feelings or guide his ownimpulses--has not his church with its priestly control, he will have hissecret-society with its secret executive control, its bovine fury, andits senseless pertinacity, the poison-bowl and the dagger. For my part,if a man must either seek liberty from ambush, and learn independencethrough treachery, or else be on his knees before a graven image, suitedto his mental calibre--let us keep him on his knees till he can rise tosomething better than murder. Why, sir, an Irish Republican (ararity)--an editor, once said to me that some of our Irish emigrantshave hair on their teeth when they get to America; and, though I may bewrong, I never see an Italian organ-grinder without first thinking of adagger between my ribs, and then settling down to a comfortable feelingthat if the fellow's a Catholic the confessional stands between me andsuch a danger. The man who attempts to teach such fellows about completeliberty should be responsible for any consequent acts."

"Still, doctor," I said, "the road to universal knowledge cannot be allsmooth. Ground must be broken by somebody. If there is anything inChristianity that bars the way to final freedom of mind for the wholehuman race, then I myself say, clear away the obstructions--the workcannot begin too soon or continue too vigorously."

"I see nothing in true Christianity but good for the human race--surelyyou speak only to call out my own views. If there is anything in anychurch policy or polity which requires reforming, let it be reformed."

"Excuse me, doctor," I said; "but I had thought you yourself anagnostic. Do you not think that if a religion will not bear the test ofcold reason, it should be discarded from the lives of men?"

"No, I do not. The human mind is not comprised in intellect alone--ithas its moral or emotional side, wholly apart from reason. Religion isnot to be reasoned about--it is to be felt. No founder of a religionever claimed for it a place in man's reason. Now just think for aminute. Let us leave the ignorant, and consider what the best of menare--men who have attained a mental cultivation certainly as great aswill ever be possible to the masses. Take the very highest society inEngland and America--to what extent are its members controlled by_reason_, and to what extent by _feeling_ and by the fixed sentimentsgrowing out of feeling? Ratiocination does not influence one of theiractions in a million. There is not within my knowledge a single instancewhere a purely rational conception has been the basis of practice, inopposition to feeling."

"Surely," I said, "you do not mean to say that educated men are notgoverned in the main by reason?"

"I mean just what I say--that I do not know, in practice, a singleinstance in which they are so governed in opposition to feeling. Pshaw,pshaw! young man; if we are to compel the acts of practical daily lifeto conform with a dialectic demonstration of what is best for us--to doonly what is in reason best for us--we must simply cease to live, thoughwe do continue to breathe. Even in physics, of what use are logicaldemonstrations, when the premises are only a foundation more unstablethan quicksand--purely provisional?

"Now if these agnostics were truthful--which they try to be; and wereconsistent--which they are not, they would be in a trying situation.Reason shows no advantage to a man in kissing his wife; he has nosyllogistic endorsement for supporting her and the children; in fact, hehas no business to have children--all the result of feeling orsentiment, all rubbish, and beneath the intellect of a man who worshipsPure Reason! And if the demands of man's moral or affectional nature area reason for such indulgences, then his aspirations to the great primalcause of the known, the unknown, and (to us here and now) unknowablewonders and mysteries of the universe without, and of ourselves within,is also justifiable in reason, and ought not by wit and eloquence to bejuggled out of the ingenuous mind. The masses are governed by religion,directly and indirectly, to an extent much greater than at first thoughtappears. The daily life of the agnostic himself is shaped by hisChristian heredity and environment. Now our Author furnishes nosubstitute for this intuitive demand of being. If reason can supplynothing in place of religion, why not allow those who possess religiousconviction to retain so agreeable, and to others beneficial, abelief?--Now right here I can detect the voice of the agnosticagitator--this is his strongest situation, and he simply smiles when youmake this opening for him. The voice says, 'Agreeable? Agreeable to burnforever in hell? Well, well, my friend--our ideas of pleasure differ.'This is sophistical twaddle. It is not the Christian that suffers from afear of hell--it is the sinner, through his guilty conscience.Conscience, conscience; the only barrier between us and hell on earth!Christians are comforted by the thought of a loving Christ--Christians,in my experience, do not suffer."

"Why, sir," I said, "I cannot but wonder that you are not yourself aprofessed Christian."

"Never mind me, young man.--But here we are on the edge of town. Icould, if I wanted to, preach a sermon capable of converting everyheathen within sound of my voice. Once, at a camp-meeting, I did preacha sermon; and I tell you, the old people looked mighty sober, and theyounger and more susceptible of my auditors covered their faces withtheir hands and seemed to shake with grief and contrition. But, pshaw,pshaw; people don't go to hear either witty agnostics lecture, orpreachers preach, to get something for their brain-boxes to reasonabout. Believe me "--tapping the volume, still in his hand--"this sortof thing won't make anybody reason. After all, the question is one ofswapping off Christ for an Illinois lawyer."

The EIGHTH Chapter

It lacked half an hour of nine o'clock as we drove up before the LoomisHouse, where I alighted, and ran up to my rooms. I had scarcely morethan made a hasty toilet, when Arthur came in. After telling me who had,during my absence, called to see me, and after attending to sometrifling wants which I expressed, he shuffled his feet in a style that Ihad learned to recognize as indicating a desire to say something notwithin the compass of our purely business relationship--a liberty whichthe precedents of our first two days of acquaintanceship in connectionwith later events had solidified into a vested right.

"Well, Arthur?" I said.

"I read the whole book, sir--there it is, on the table. That book justdid get me. But what did become of Pym and Peters? And is it true you'vefound that old soc-doligin' pirate?"

I told him that Peters was found.

"Well, now!" he continued. "I'd like to see the old four-foot-eighter.But if you love me, tell me what that white curtain reachin' down fromthe sky was, and what made the ocean bilin' hot? What made themante-artic niggers so 'fraid of everything white, and what was thehiryglificks on the black marble meant to say? And, most of all, who wasthe female that stood in the way of the boat? Say--I don't blameanybody--but if Mr. Poe knowed he didn't know these points, what did heget our mouths waterin' for? Did you find out these points yet?"

I explained to him that probably at that very moment Doctor Bainbridgewas sitting on the edge of Dirk Peters' cot, drinking in the wonderfulstory; and that as soon as a certain gentleman had called to see me, Iexpected to return to Peters' house, and to remain until we knew all.

"Go slow," said Arthur, "and don't fall down on any importing points.Better take time, and catch everything. I asked Doctor Castleton lastnight what made that ocean bile; and he said he guessed the mouth ofhell was down that way, and Satin had just opened the door to air out.That's him; if it ain't heaven it's got to be hell. But how old Petersever lived this long with Castleton monkeyin' with him is a mighty funnything.--But who's that?"

A rap had sounded on my door. My caller had arrived.

I did not succeed in getting back to Bainbridge and Peters so soon as Ihad expected. My business in the town dragged along far into theevening, and it was nine o'clock by the time I was at liberty. At teno'clock I sent for a conveyance, and was driven to Peters' house, whereI arrived just before midnight.

I found Peters sleeping soundly, and Bainbridge dozing in a chair. Myentrance aroused Bainbridge. He arose, smiling, and was apparently gladto see me. I saw at a glance that he had been successful in obtainingfrom Peters the secrets of his antarctic voyage. "Well?" I asked.

"The information which I have gained," said Bainbridge, "even could Iprocure no more, would suffice to explain all those mysteries that Poehints at as fact, and much that he seems to apprehend with that sixthsense which in the genius approaches a union of clairvoyance andprescience--mysteries of which he does not speak in languagesufficiently clear for common comprehension. At all events, I am notdisappointed; and more may yet be procured. There remains much ofinterest, in the way of _minutiae_, which I expect to learn to-morrow. Iknow now what made that antarctic region more than tropical, and whatthe white curtain was--and is. I know how the hieroglyphics came in thecaverns of black marl. That antarctic country exceeds, in the trulywonderful, anything in the world, old or new, with which I amacquainted, or of which I have heard."

"But is it true? Have you not been listening to fairy tales?--or,rather, to sailor tales?"

"When to-morrow I tell you what I have, hour after hour, with briefrests, drawn from that poor old battered hulk"--he pointed towardPeters' cot--"and when you consider what he is--then say if he is theman, or his sailor friends are the men, to invent such a story. I admitthat at times during the day his mind seemed to wander slightly, andthat he has the usual faculty of sea-faring men for exaggeration; sothat at times I had to employ my best discrimination to enable me toseparate the real from the fanciful, that I might retain the true anddiscard the untrue. He seems to have lived for more than a year inproximity to the South Pole, and his experiences were as marvellous asthat country is strangely grand, and its people truly wonderful--Oh,no--nothing on the Gulliver order; the people are not dwarfs or giants,and they have no horses either that talk or that do not talk; noyahoos--nothing in that line. 'Wings?' Oh, no--no flying men or women,no women in gauze, either; everything quite in good taste and genteel.Just wait, now; you'll hear it all in an orderly way--which I myself didnot, however. 'One-eyed?' I told you, just now, that it was all in goodtaste and genteel. No, no; nothing Homeric--no sheep, and no sirens.Now, I'm really tired, and you'll not succeed in starting me on a storythat'll take six or eight hours to tell, even if we do not stop todiscuss matters as we progress. To-morrow, as I before said, we will getfrom Peters all other possible facts, and no doubt we shall gatherfurther particulars; then we will go to town. I intend to come out hereevery day till Peters gets better or dies--and I suppose you will notrefuse to keep me company. Every evening we will meet in my rooms, or inyours, and I will recite the story in my own way. Now does that satisfyyou?"

It satisfied me fully, I said; and then we spread our blankets, and madea night of it on the floor.

The next day Bainbridge spent the forenoon, for the most part, sittingon the edge of Dirk Peters' cot, listening to the old man talk,describe, explain. I walked out, and explored the immediately adjacentcountry, entertaining myself as best I could. At about two o'clock inthe afternoon we started for town, leaving Peters much better than whentwo days before we had first, together, entered his humble home. Wepromised to see him the next day; and, in fact, one or both of usreturned each day for many succeeding days. That evening DoctorBainbridge came to my rooms, and began the recitation of Dirk Peters'story; and that, too, was continued from day to day.

And it is now time that the patient reader should also know the secretsof that far-distant antarctic region--secrets of which Poe himself diedin ignorance--save as the genius, the seer, knows the wonders of heavenand earth--sees gems that lie in hidden places, and flowers that bloomobscurely, and feels the mysteries of ocean depths, and all that is sofar--or near, so great--or small, that common vision sees it not.

The NINTH Chapter

There may be among my readers some who have never read "The Narrative ofA. Gordon Pym," or have so long ago perused that interesting andmysterious conception, that they have forgotten even the outlines of thestory. It is the purpose of the present chapter to review a few of theincidents in that narrative, a knowledge of which will add to theclearer understanding of Peters' story.

Those who are familiar with Edgar Allan Poe's admirable and entrancingnarrative just mentioned, are aware that it is written inautobiographical form, the facts for the most part being furnished byPym in the shape of journal or diary entries, which are edited by Mr.Poe. For such readers it will be but a waste of time to peruse thepresent chapter, brief though it is. And let me further say to anychance reader of mine who has never had opportunity to enjoy thatexciting and edifying work of America's great genius of prose fiction,that he is to be envied the possession of the belated pleasure thatawaits him--only a treasured memory of which delight remains to the restof us.

From my own narrative I shall omit much of description and colloquywhich, during its development in 1877, occurred concerning discoveriesof a geographical and geological nature, and also many discussions of acharacter purely philosophical; but no fact shall be discarded. Thehistorian has, in my opinion, no discretionary power concerning theintroduction or elimination of facts. His duty is plain, and in thepresent instance it shall be faithfully performed.

The following presents a very general outline of "The Narrative of A.Gordon Pym":

In the year 1827, Pym, just verging upon manhood, runs away from hishome in the town of Nantucket, on the island of the same name, incompanionship with his boy friend, Augustus Barnard, son of the captainof the ship on which they depart. The name of the brig on which theyembark is the Grampus, which is starting for a trading voyage in theSouth Pacific Ocean. Young Barnard secretes Pym in the hold of the brig,to remain hidden until so far from land as to make a return of therunaway impracticable. Pym, hidden amid the freightage of the hold,falls into a prolonged slumber, probably caused by the foul air in thatpart of the vessel. When the brig is four days at sea, a majority of thecrew mutiny; and after killing many of those who have not joined them,Captain Barnard is set adrift in a small boat, without food and withonly a jug of water. Young Barnard is permitted to remain on the vessel.There is a dog that plays a leading part in the mutiny episode by actingas a messenger between Barnard and Pym, who had no other means ofcommunicating.

Next comes a counter mutiny, made necessary to preserve the life of onePeters, a sailor to whom Barnard owes his life. The ship's cook isdetermined to kill Peters, and is about to accomplish his purpose, whenPeters, young Barnard, and a sailor named Parker, who joins the two,devise a plan for overcoming the mutineers of the "cook's party." Thisthey succeeded in doing by, at the right moment, producing from hishiding-place young Pym, who is dressed to resemble a certain murderedsailor whose corpse is still on the brig; and during the fright of the"cook's party," Peters and Parker kill the cook and his followers.

Then the four--Barnard, Pym, Peters, and the sailor Parker--have manythrilling adventures. The brig is finally wrecked in a storm, and onlythe inverted hull remains above water, to which the four cling for manydays. The party is at last rescued by a trading-vessel on its way todiscover new lands in the Antarctic Ocean. They reach 83 south latitude,soon after which a landing is made on an island inhabited by a tribe ofstrange black people. Here, through a trick of the islanders, the crewlose their lives--all save Pym and Peters. Parker had already died, andin a manner more entertaining to the reader in the perusal than toParker in the performance; and which, Peters said forty-nine yearslater, the mere thought of, always made him willing to wait for hissupper when he had of necessity to forego a dinner.

Whilst escaping in a small boat from this island, Pym and Peters abductone of the male natives. Like his fellows, this native is black, even tohis teeth; in fact, there is nothing white on the whole island; even thewater has its peculiarities. And also like his fellows, he dreads thecolor _white_; and whenever he sees anything white he becomes almostfrenzied or paralyzed with terror. The small boat with its threeoccupants is carried on an ocean current, to the south. One day Pym, intaking a white handkerchief from his pocket allows the wind to flare itinto the face of the black islander, who sinks in convulsions to thebottom of the boat, later moaning (as had moaned the other islanders onseeing white), "Tekeli-li, tekeli-li." He continued to breathe, and nomore. The following day the body of a white animal floats by, a bodysimilar to one which they had seen on the beach of the island lastvisited. Then they see in the south a white curtain, which, after theirfurther progress in its direction, they observe reaches from the sky tothe water. The water of the ocean current which is hurrying them alongbecomes hour by hour warmer, and finally hot. An ash-like material,which seems to melt as it touches the water, falls all around and overthem. Gigantic white birds fly from beyond the white curtain, screamingthe eternal "Teke-li-li, tekeli-li"--a syllabication that dies away onthe lips of the islander as his soul finally, on that last terrible day,leaves his body.

The last words of the last of Pym's entries in his journal are asfollows:

"And now we rushed into the embraces of the cataract, where a chasmthrew itself open to receive us. But there arose in our pathway ashrouded human figure, very far larger in its proportions than anydweller among men. And the hue of the skin of the figure was of theperfect whiteness of the snow."

The following description of Dirk Peters as he appeared in the year1827, or just fifty years before I saw him, apparently a man ofseventy-five years (though we finally concluded that he was nearereighty), is Pym's, quoted from Poe's narrative:

"This man was the son of an Indian woman of the tribe of Upsarokas, wholive among fastnesses of the Black Hills, near the source of theMissouri. His father was a fur-trader, I believe, or at least connectedin some manner with the Indian trading-posts on Lewis River. Petershimself was one of the most ferocious looking men I ever beheld. He wasshort in stature, not more than four feet eight inches high, but hislimbs were of Herculean mould. His hands, especially, were so enormouslythick and broad as hardly to retain a human shape. His arms, as well ashis legs, were bowed in the most singular manner, and appeared topossess no flexibility whatever. His head was equally deformed, being ofimmense size, with an indentation on the crown (like that on the head ofmost negroes) and entirely bald. To conceal this latter deficiency,which did not proceed from old age, he usually wore a wig formed of anyhair-like material which presented itself--occasionally the skin of aSpanish dog or American grizzly bear. At the time spoken of, he had on aportion of one of these bear-skins; and it added no little to thenatural ferocity of his countenance, which betook of the Upsarokacharacter. The mouth extended nearly from ear to ear; the lips werethin, and seemed, like some other portions of his frame, to be devoid ofnatural pliancy, so that the ruling expression never varied under theinfluence of any emotion whatever. This ruling expression may beconceived when it is considered that the teeth were exceedingly long andprotruding, and were never even partially covered, in any instance, bythe lips. To pass this man with a casual glance, one might imagine himto be convulsed with laughter; but a second look would induce ashuddering acknowledgment, that if such an expression were indicative ofmerriment, the merriment must be that of a demon. Of this singular beingmany anecdotes were prevalent among the seafaring men of Nantucket.These anecdotes went to prove his prodigious strength when underexcitement, and some of them had given rise to a doubt of his sanity."

THE STORY OF DIRK PETERS

The TENTH Chapter

During the early evening of the day on which Doctor Bainbridge and Ireturned from our stay with Dirk Peters, I sat in my room at the LoomisHouse, impatiently awaiting the moment when Bainbridge was to arrive. Iknew that he was wearied by his labors with Peters, and I did notanticipate a prolonged talk from him. Still, I was anxious to hear atleast a beginning of the promised story. At the appointed time he camein, and placing a roll of paper on the table, took the large easy-chairwhich I had placed for him.

"As I know," he said, "that the developments of the past three daysmust, quite naturally, have developed a curiosity in you of someintensity to hear the sequel of the Pym adventures, I shall endeavor notto keep you unnecessarily waiting; but shall allay at once a portion ofyour curiosity. Later--tomorrow, if agreeable--I will deal with theparticulars of that strange voyage--perhaps the strangest ever made byman."

He picked up, and smoothed out upon the table, the roll of paper whichhe had brought with him; and then continued:

"In the first place, I will briefly and in a very general way describefor you the south polar region, which, I feel certain, Pym and Petersreached, and where they resided for somewhat more than one year. Here isa map which I have with some care drawn from rough sketches jotted downas I sat on the edge of Peters' cot, and each of which sketches I hadhim verify.

"Now move this way with your chair, and look at this map. And in thefirst place, I will tell you that at the South Pole--probably notprecisely at the pole, but certainly within the sixth of a degree ofit--is a circular surface of absolutely white-hot, boiling lava, aboutfifteen miles in diameter. This surface was, in ages past, as indicatedby surroundings, many times its present surface extent--say from seventyto seventy-five miles across. No doubt the surface of the earth at theAntarctic Pole had once cooled, and later become covered with water,though with very shallow water--probably at some points by none, atothers by a depth of ten or fifteen feet. From some cause--and manycauses might be imagined--this earth-and-water surface of say twohundred miles in circumference, sank into the interior of the earth, andthe boiling lava came to the surface. We can scarcely conceive of theawful effect when the Antarctic Sea poured over the circumference ofthis mass of boiling earth and metal.

"Now it must be considered that this boiling lava was not merely a greatsurface of white-hot matter, in which case it would, relativelyspeaking, soon have cooled. To flood its edges with an overflow of tenfeet of water would be comparable to running a film of water a hundredthof an inch in depth over the top of a red-hot stove in which a largefire continues to burn and constantly to renew the heat on its surface.This surface of boiling lava must have had a practically limitlessdepth, and the water which poured over it must have evaporatedinstantly. After thinking the matter over, with the _data_ which I havewell in view, I concluded that it required about two hundred years forthe water to reach the limit which it finally attained as water _enmasse_. A little thought on the subject has shown me that Peters istelling the truth, because his description, to my mind, harmonizes withthe laws of physics. One of the earliest phenomena presented by thiscondition, was that so much sea-water evaporated, and evaporated sorapidly, that masses of rock-salt formed, creating a partial barrier tothe inroads of the sea--I say a partial barrier, because thedeliquescence of salt would cause it to be the poorest of all barriersto water. Still, we must remember that the immediately surrounding watermust have reached, so far as salt is concerned, the saturation point,and would have been a very slow solvent of hard rock-salt in enormousmasses and several miles in extent. Then, two other conditions soonarose: First, the warm surrounding water permitted a coral-likedevelopment, as shown by present appearances, and second, volcanicaction began.

"Now look at my map. This inner circle represents the present area ofboiling lava, which, as I have said, is about fifteen miles indiameter--the South Pole, according to the natives, being at about thepoint corresponding to this dot, marked 'a.' The ring next without thecircle I have made to represent a zone of lava which is at its inneredge white-hot, and at its outer edge red-hot, its width, let us say, asthe division is arbitrary, about four miles. The second circlerepresents a zone of lava which is dull red at its inner edge, andblack, but hot, at its outer. Of course the lava blends away fromwhite-hot within, to barely warm without; but I thus map it, the betterto picture reigning conditions. The next circle, some four or five milesin width, represents a ring of cold lava-blocks, masses of rock-salt,and animalculine remains, from twenty-five to two hundred feet high.Outside of this last-mentioned zone, we have several rings of volcanicmountains with intervening valleys, and many active craters at thesummit of mountains; while on the mountain-sides lie numerous masses ofrock-salt, thrown from below by eruptive action, glistening in thebrilliant volcanic light, and slowly deliquescing. This zone ofmountains and valleys is from ten to twenty miles in width, and whilstin the main its mountains are not more than from half a mile to a milehigh, it contains peaks of five or six miles in height, and there is onepeak which rises nine miles above the sea-level.

"I want you to look particularly at these larger mountain-ranges, one atthe right, the other at the left side of my map--each of which as itstretches out into the sea divides into two smaller chains. Upon theseranges, and the comparatively diminutive height of the interveningmountains, in connection with the fact that there is a constantwind-current from the lower Pacific (generally speaking, from the westof longitude 74 W.), depends the habitability of this large island, theIsland of Hili-li (here represented in about longitude 75 E.), and manyother islands which stretch out in the same direction from this enormousactive surface-crater. I say that upon such conditions depends thehabitability of these islands, and so I believe; but there is anothercause for their greater than tropical warmth: If you will glance here onthe right of this map, in the midst of the mountain zone you will seerepresented a bay, which, winding among mountains, makes its way veryclose to the zone of hot lava--in fact, is divided from it by littlemore than the ring of lava-blocks, rock-salt, and animal remains, whichat this point is narrowed to a width of about two miles. The temperatureof the water of this bay at its inner extremity is probably about 180F.--say 32 below the boiling-point of distilled water; and it flows in asteady current past the Island of Hili-li. This bay is undoubtedly fedfrom the opposite side of the great crater, and its supply flows formiles in contact with hot lava. It is probable that this extremely warmwater current greatly assists the hot-air current in creating thesuper-tropical climate of Hili-li.

"And now, as I have in part satisfied your curiosity, and as I amsomewhat exhausted with my two days' and nights' experience with Peters,I know you will permit me to rest at so suitable a stopping-point.To-morrow evening I will take up the story of Dirk Peters where it joinsthe sudden break in Pym's journal, and will carry you along to the timewhen the inhabitants of Hili-li thought that the atmosphere of someother land would be more conducive to Peters' longevity and health, aswell as to their own tranquillity. And I assure your Sultanship, thatthe story I shall relate to you to-morrow night will be more interestingthan the dry physical facts which I have this evening imparted, andwhich it seemed best that you should know before hearing in consecutivedetail the particulars of Peters' voyage."

I assented to his suggestions, thanking him for the clear descriptionwhich he had given of that strange region, and for the pains he hadtaken to draft of it so accurate a map--which map he allowed me toretain. I was about to ask a question, when the door opened, and DoctorCastleton rushed into the room.

"Well, how's the old man?" he asked.

We described Peters' condition; and I even recounted a few of the factswhich Bainbridge had just imparted to me. Then I asked the questionwhich Castleton's abrupt entry had delayed.

"But," I asked, "has not Peters' imagination, owing to theadministration of drugs, been unnaturally stimulated? There are drugswhich it is commonly believed may have a wonderful effect in stimulatingthe imagination to flights of marvellous grandeur."

"No," said Bainbridge. "The doctor here will say the same. No drug onearth could produce even an approach to such an effect."

"Certainly not," said Castleton. "The mass of laymen are not onlyignorant--excuse me, sir, but I know you want the facts--not onlyignorant, but extremely and persistently ignorant on this subject. Ihave heard it said that Byron drank twelve--or perhaps twenty--bottlesof wine the night he wrote 'The Corsair.' If he did, he simply wrote'The Corsair' in spite of the wine. I have heard it stated that Poe wasintoxicated when he wrote 'The Raven'--which is not only an untruestatement but one that could not possibly be true, and which certainlyevery man who ever attempted to write under the influence of analcoholic stimulant knows to be false. Drugs--including alcohol--whichare supposed to stimulate what we might term a rational imagination,only stimulate an irrational fancy. They seem to the person affected tocause a play of imagination, but they really produce only a state ofnervous action which causes their subject to feel appreciation ofotherwise trifling mental pictures that in themselves are flimsynothings. Let a man so affected try to impart to another his fancies,and--well, who has not been bored by a drunken man? Did De Quincey, withthat superb mind, succeed in fancying anything that even he could tell?He speaks of glowing drug-born fancies, but he describes nothings. NowMilton, the old Puritan--the cold-water man--he had fancies which he wasable to transmit, and which are worthy to be forever treasured. Theearly Greeks were exceedingly temperate, and the men who composed the'Nostoi' were not drunkards--Homer sang the 'Iliad' and the 'Odyssey'with a sober tongue, and a sober brain back of his utterances. The manwho gets drunk to write poetry, will find it easier to write his poetryon the following morning, spite of headache, blue-devils, and all." Hepaused for a moment; and then this peculiar man continued:

"And I know! Why, sir, I have drunk barrels of whiskey--barrels of thestuff. I have seen whiskey-snakes in squirming masses three feet deep. Ihave gone into a parlor, and had a lady say when she saw me fumbling inmy pockets: 'Doctor, your handkerchief is in your back pocket.' Blessher! I was only putting back into my pockets the jim-jam snake-heads asthe snakes _would_ try to emerge! I pity a weak devil that goes home andto bed because of a mild attack of delirium tremens. I brush the vipersaway with a sweep of my hand, and go about my business. But I myselfdraw the line at roosters. A man who may laugh at snakes will quailbefore roosters. A fellow may shut his eyes to snakes, but he can't shuthis ears to roosters. Well, well: it's all in a life-time. But, believeme, no good poetry, either in verse or in prose, is drunkenman poetry."

With which final remark he shot out of the room. Then Doctor Bainbridgetook his departure, and I retired to sleep and to dream of fierycraters, with snakes crawling out of them, and gigantic roosters pickingup the snakes one by one and dropping them over a mountain of salt intoa lake of boiling water. I was pleased when morning came, and I heardthe comparatively cheering tinkle from bells on the team of mulesdrawing the little "bob-tail" street-car past the hotel.

The ELEVENTH Chapter

On the following evening Bainbridge came to my room as he had promised,arriving at about eight o'clock. I had not that day accompanied him onhis visit to Peters, who it seems was daily gaining strength. I hadspent my day in reading, except that Arthur had repeatedly come to myroom, remaining for fifteen or twenty minutes at a time as his dutieswould permit, being curious to learn from me "some of the things aboutthat ante-arctic country," etc. He was much interested in the subject,and studied with close attention the map made by Doctor Bainbridge.Arthur had asked permission to be present when the doctor should come inthe evening, but I thought better to deny him that privilege. DoctorBainbridge was taking the matter seriously, and I knew Arthur too wellto expect from him a decorous reticence at any time. I could imagine theeffect on Bainbridge as he closed some glowing description, shouldArthur jump up with a remark about "ante-arctic niggers," or "geewhallopin big females." I had occasion later to know that my caution wasmost judicious, and to condemn myself for a want of firmness inmaintaining so sensible a decision.

Doctor Bainbridge, without unnecessary delay or preliminary remark,began the relation of Peters' adventures at the point indicated by himthe evening before as the proper place of commencement.

"The great white curtain you have no doubt already surmised to be aclear-cut line of dense fog, due to the fact that a perpendicular planeof extremely cold air in that situation cuts through an atmospherewhich, on both sides of this sheet of frigid air, is exceedingly warm,and laden with moisture to the saturation-point. This curtain of fog isso thin that sudden gusts of wind, upon either of its surfaces, drive itaside much as a double curtain is thrown on either side by the arms of aperson passing between. It was through such an opening that Pym andPeters rushed, on a cross-current of warm water which was carrying themalong. The figure of a large, pure-white woman, into whose arms theirhalf-delirious fancies pictured them as rushing, was simply a largestatue of spotless marble, which stands at the entrance of the bay ofHili-li. The ash-like material which for days had rained upon them andinto the ocean around them, was no longer seen. It proved to have been apeculiar volcano dust or crater ash, which, carried into the upper air,fell at a distance--sometimes directly on Hili-li; but rarely so closeas within eighty or ninety miles of the central fire.

"They had scarcely passed the white fog-curtain when they were accostedby a gay party of young men and young women, numbering some eight or tenpersons, in an elegant pleasure-boat. Pym and Peters being ignorant ofthe language of Hili-li land, and the Hili-lites being ignorant of theEnglish tongue, it was of course impossible for them to hold conversebeyond that permitted by signs. The pleasure party, however, saw at oncethat the two men were almost ready to expire from want of food and rest.The Hili-lites took them into their own spacious boat, and hastened to alanding-place in the suburbs of the capital and metropolis of thenation, Hili-li City. There they all disembarked, and the strangers weresupported across a lawn, the grass of which was of the palest green--(sonearly white, in fact, that its greenness of tint would scarcely havebeen noticed but for the contrast afforded by many brilliant whiteflowers that appeared here and there amid the grass)--up to a palace,the equal of which, for size and beauty, neither of the Americans hadbefore seen, though Pym was familiar with the external appearance of thefinest residences in and about Boston, and also of those on the HudsonRiver just above New York; whilst Peters had been in most of thesea-coast cities of the habitable world.

"They were taken into this palace, were immediately escorted to the bath(which Peters declined to enter), were furnished with liquidnourishments, and were then allowed to sleep--which both of them did,uninterruptedly, for twenty-four hours. When they awoke they werefurnished with new clothing of the best (the Hili-lites dressedsomething in the style of Louis XIV.), and then invited to a fullrepast. So well were they treated that in less than a week they feltquite as strong and otherwise natural as they had on leaving the harborof Nantucket.

"So elegant and expressive, yet so simple was the language of Hili-li,that Pym could in two weeks understand and speak it sufficiently wellfor ordinary converse; whilst Peters was able to employ it sufficientlyfor his purposes, in about a month.

"The residents of the palace seemed to comprehend just about what hadhappened to the strangers. It appears that once or twice in a centurystrangers similar in general exterior to this pair had arrived in thatregion, generally in small boats, and on one occasion in a ship; butnone of the strangers had desired to depart from a land so beautiful, toundertake a voyage both long and hazardous--none save the persons whohad come in a ship nearly three centuries before--(you will recall whatI told you of the small book that I read in the Astor Library). As therewas little which the Hili-lites had any desire to learn from thestrangers, there was not much to be said, anyway. Pym and Peters werepermitted to roam at will, and many Hili-lites came to look at them.The palace in which they were permitted to reside belonged to a cousinof the king, so that no troublesome surveillance was inflicted uponthese wrecked sailors--in fact, so completely isolated were the two,that no feelings except a mild degree of sympathy and curiosity wereexcited by their presence on the island. A small boat was at theirdisposal, and they soon almost daily took the liberty of rowing acrossthe harbor to the wharf at the end of the main street of Hili-li, wherethey would disembark, and wander for hours around this strange old city,viewing in wonderment its beauties, its peculiarities, its mysteries.

"Hili-li is a city of from one to two hundred thousand people. But, oh,lovely beyond power of language to describe!--past all conception, andcomparable alone with fancies such as float through the brain ofpoet-lover as he lies dreaming of his soul's desire. I draw myconclusions from Peters' state of mind when he attempts to describe thisstrange city, rather than from what he says; and also from some of Pym'sremarks on the subject, which Peters was able to repeat. In yourimagination, compass within an area two miles in diameter the choicestbeauties of ancient Greece and Egypt, Rome and Persia; then brightenthem with natural surrounding scenery such as Homer and Dante and Miltonmight have dreamed of--and you may feel a little of what Pym and Petersfelt when first they saw this glorious island. In ancient Greece a truedemocrat would have been displeased with the extreme discrepancy betweenthe grandeur of public buildings, and the poverty of private dwellings;but in Hili-li these two bore a perfectly just relationship of elegance,each in its way being perfect.

"Yet mere inanimate beauties were the least of all. Even Peters, old anddying--never a man to whom art spoke in more than whispers--even he wasaroused from the arms of death when he spoke of the women of Hili-li.'Were they blondes?' I asked him. 'No.' 'Were they brunettes?' 'No.'They were simply entrancing--never to be forgotten. Each and everyone ofthem, like Helen, won by her mere presence the adoration of man. And themen--even they must have been superb--were types of perfect manlyelegance.

"I spent many hours in trying to draw from Peters facts which I mightput together and so become competent to explain the perfection, physicaland mental--for they possessed both of these charms--of the Hili-lites.And after combining what Peters could describe, and what he could recallof Pym's sayings, with a statement or two of the natives that clings inthe old man's memory, I formed what I am able to assure you is areliable opinion of the origin of the Hili-lite race:

"At about the most trying period of the barbarian invasion of SouthernEurope--certainly preceding the foundation of Venice, and I think in thefourth century--when the enlightened peoples of the Mediterranean werefleeing hither and thither like rats in a burning house from which butfew escape--during this fearful time, a number of men with theirfamilies and a few slaves, took advantage of a momentary lull in theterrors of the period, to save themselves. They purchased a number ofvessels, and loading each with tools, seeds, animals, valuedmanuscripts, and all that they possessed worth moving, started to seek aland in which they might colonize, there in time to found a new empirebeyond the reach of all barbarians. They passed out of the Mediterraneanand down the west coast of Africa. Fortunately they had thoroughlyanticipated storms and wrecks, and each vessel was loaded in such amanner as to be independent of the others. When well on their way, oneof those rare, prolonged storms from the north came on, and the vesselswere soon driven far from land, and separated, each from all the others.One of these vessels managed to outlive the terrific storm, which lastedfor thirty days; and when the winds abated, the hundred or more men,women, children, and slaves, found themselves among the islands of whatnow is named Hili-liland. There they settled--there, where naturefurnishes, without labor, light and heat the year round, and vegetationis literally perpetual. They met with none of the initial difficultiesof primitive peoples. They were educated, and they possessed thetreasures of knowledge born of a thousand years of Roman supremacy; fromthe beginning they had that other priceless treasure, leisure--that realessential of perfect culture; they had for the first five hundred yearsno human enemy to contend with, and even then with the merestweaklings--weaklings in the hands of a people at that period verystrong; for by that time the Hili-lites must have numbered a millionsouls, or almost as many as they now are. But of all that theypossessed, the rest would have been comparatively little had they notretained in lasting memory the lesson of Rome's downfall--the price apeople is compelled to pay for prolonged and unbroken luxuriousindolence. This lesson of the downfall of Rome they never forgot; andto-day, with all their beauty and refinement, physical and mentaleffeminacy is left solely to the women. True, it requires from eachinhabitant but a few hours of labor in the year to supply all purelyphysical material wants; but, beginning with the year of the settlementof Hili-li, up to the present time, the wealthiest in the land hasperformed his share of physical labor quite as conscientiously as hasthe poorest. Then with them, a man or woman is educated up to the timeof death. The children are taught as with us, and the young men, and theyoung women, too, take a college course. But after the college course,they go on with their study. A great jurist at forty, or for that matterat seventy, concludes to make an exhaustive study of astronomy--or, ifearlier in life he has exhausted all desire to know the facts ofastronomy, he perhaps begins a study of anatomy--or whatever it mayhappen to please his fancy to investigate. The Hili-lites claim that inthis way those who live to seventy or eighty acquire a fairly goodgeneral education, but of this I have my doubts. After the age oftwenty, a man does not devote more than two hours a day to new branchesof learning; but two hours a day is sufficient time, if well employed,to keep his mind always young and vigorous; and it has been shown bythis people that a person under such a system retains more of thebuoyancy and freshness of youth at eighty than do we in Europe andAmerica at the age of fifty.

"In Hili-liland the people have gone much farther than we in thedevelopment of the purely reasoning faculties--in fact, they have goneso far that they now ignore reason almost completely, having carried itsdevelopment to a finality, and found it comparatively worthless in thepractical affairs of life. They claim--and seem by their lives toprove--that, practically, society is happier and more moral when itexists without any pretence that it is controlled by anything else thanby feeling--that is, as a matter of course, by properly educatedfeeling. Hili-li is a kingdom, but its people must, from what I canlearn, have as pure and perfect a constitutional liberty as it ispossible for mankind to enjoy--not liberty as the accident of a royalwhim, but such a perfect liberty as the people of England areapproaching, and in which by another century they will be able toindulge themselves. They claim that as liberty does not mean license, sogovernment of self by feeling and not by reason need not meanlicense--and never will mean license when correctly understood andproperly directed--and yet that such government alone brings completehappiness. This putting aside and dwarfing of the reasoning facultyseems to have resulted in an intuitional state of mind. Peters says thatthe Hili-lites always seemed to know what he was thinking about, andwere always able to anticipate and thwart his acts when they so desired.

"As I was able to gain from Peters in so brief a time a very limitedrange of fact from which to make correct deductions of importance, I didnot expend much of that valuable time in seeking for descriptions ofbuildings; but I did learn sufficient in that direction to satisfy methat, to the fund of architectural knowledge brought by the ancestors ofthis people from Europe, they had, during the centuries, added much thatis new and valuable, even sublime and truly marvellous.

"But even here in this paradise on earth, there is a criminal class--notvery terrible, but, legally, a criminal class. It seems that a portionof the old, restless, warrior-spirit must have trickled along in obscureby-ways of the sanguineous system of many of these people, for amongthe youths of each generation several thousand out of the wholepopulation (residing on a hundred islands, large and small), would,despite every effort of their elders, become unmanageable. These--aftereach young man had been given two or three opportunities to reform, andin the end been judged incorrigible--were banished to themountain-ranges which surround the great active surface-crater alreadydescribed, and which are from thirty to eighty miles distant from theCapital of Hili-li. There they might either freeze or roast, as tasteshould dictate.

"To-morrow evening," concluded Bainbridge, "I shall relate someparticulars in the lives of Pym and Peters in Hili-liland. The purelypersonal experiences of these two adventurers I should ignore, were itnot that they take us into the region of the wonderful crater and itspeculiar surrounding mountains and valleys, where we shall see nature inone of the strangest of her many strange guises." Then, after a second'spause:

"Do you accompany me to see the poor old fellow, tomorrow?"

I promised that I would; and we agreed upon two o'clock as the time forstarting. Five minutes later Doctor Bainbridge arose, and sayinggood-night, left me until the morrow.

The TWELFTH Chapter

The next evening at the appointed hour Doctor Bainbridge came in. I hadnot been able to accompany him in his daily visit to Peters. AsBainbridge took his seat he said a few words concerning the old sailor,who, to the surprise, I think, of both physicians, appeared to berecovering. They hoped for scarcely more than a temporary improvement,but a little longer life for the poor old man seemed now assured.

Doctor Bainbridge glanced at the map of Hili-li, which I had spread outon the table, and began:

"In the ducal palace," said he, "in which through the kindness of theyounger members of the household, Pym and Peters were permitted toreside--at first only in the servants' quarters--the servants, however,being, at least in social manners, equal to the strangers--there were,besides the immediate family of the duke, many more or less close familyconnections. Among these was a young woman, corresponding in her periodof life to New England women in their twentieth or twenty-first year,but really in her sixteenth year. Now I should imagine from the actionsof that old sea-dog, Peters, lying there in his seventy-eighth orseventy-ninth year, and forty-nine years after he last set eyes on theyoung woman, that she must have been the loveliest being in a land ofexceeding loveliness. Her eyes, the old man says, were in general like atropical sky in a dead calm, but on occasions they resembled a tropicalsky in a thunder-storm. She had one of those broad faces in which thecheeks stand out roundly, supporting in merriment a hundred changingforms, and laughing dimples enough to steal a heart of adamant--theloveliest face, when it is lovely, in all the world. Her hair wasgolden, but of the very lightest of pure gold--a golden white; and whenin the extreme warmth of her island home she sat amid the trees, and itwas allowed to fall away in rippling waves--to what then am I to likenit? It was transcendently beautiful. I think that I can feel itsappearance. It must have looked like the sun's shimmer on the sea-foamfrom which rose Aphrodite; or like the glint from Cupid's goldenarrow-heads as, later, sitting by the side of Aphrodite, he floatedalong the shores of queenly Hellas, in gleeful mischief shootinglandward and piercing many a heart. Ah, love in youth! The coldreasoning world shall never take away that charm; and when the yearsshall cover with senile snows those who have felt it, then Intuition andnot Reason shall give Faith to them as the only substitute for gloriesthat have faded and gone.

"But the form of this lovely being--what shall I say of her form! Here Ipause. When Peters, at my urgent solicitation, attempted to describe it,he simply gurgled away into one of his spells of delirium. It was no useto try--though I did, again and again, try to draw from the old mansomething definite. It seems that she was so rounded and so proportionedas to meet every artistic demand, and to divert even from her beautifulface the glance of her enraptured beholders. If we are to gain anapproximate idea of a figure so perfect, we must try to conceive whatmight be the result of a supreme effort of nature to show by comparisonto the most artistic of her people just what puling infants they were intheir attempts to create forms of true beauty from marble.

"Her name was Lilama.

"It appears that young Pym was at this time a handsome fellow, almostsix feet tall; and in his attire, of which I have spoken as resemblingin many respects that of the court _habitues_ of Louis XIV, he wasindeed a fine example of natural and artificial beauty combined. Andthen, he had suffered! Need I say more? What heart of maiden would nothave softened to this stranger youth?

"Well, these two loved. From what Peters tells me, the episode of Romeoand Juliet sinks into insignificance by the side of the story of theirlove. With leisure and with opportunity to love, for several monthsthese young people enjoyed an earthly heaven which it is rarely indeedthe lot of a young couple to enjoy. But alas! and alas! True as in thedays when moonlight fell amid the palaces of Babylon and Nineveh is theold poetic expression--its truth older than Shakespeare, older thanhistoric man--that 'The course of true love never did run smooth.'

"It seems that among the so-called criminal exiles to the VolcanicMountains was a young man of good family, who had known--and of courseloved--Lilama. And I will say in passing that the youths who comprisedthis class would, the larger part of them, never have been exiles, ifHili-li had required a standing army, or had even not forbidden by lawthe more rough and dangerous games to be played--I allude to some veryrough sports and pastimes, in which bones were frequently broken--gameswhich these youths and preceding generations of youths had initiated anddeveloped. But there was in Hili-li, aside from boating, no allowablemeans for the gratification of that desire to contend with danger whichis inherent in manly youths the world over. Hence these young men wereby their very nature compelled to violate laws thus unnatural, and, asgenerally happens, in doing so they went to extremes. The youngHili-lite to whom I have alluded had been for more than a year with theexiles. His name was Ahpilus. Lilama did not reciprocate his love. Shehad known him from infancy, and for her there was no romance in poorAhpilus. But the young Hili-lite was madly infatuated with her, and itseems by later developments that his enforced absence from her haddriven him almost, if not wholly, insane.

"Thus stood matters about three months after the arrival in Hili-li ofthe Americans. It will be remembered that, according to Poe's account,Pym and Peters passed through the 'great white curtain' on March 22d.Peters says that this statement is probably correct. That datecorresponds to their autumnal equinox--about. Three months latercorresponds to our summer solstice--their midwinter. By the latter time,and for weeks before, the antarctic sun never rose above the horizon.But this season was in Hili-li the most beautiful and enjoyable periodof the year. The open crater of almost pure white boiling lava which Ihave described, and which presented a surface of the most brilliantlight, covering an area of more than 150 square miles, was amplysufficient to light islands from 45 to 75 miles distant. Hili-lireceived some direct light from a hundred or more volcanic fires--twowithin its own shores; but by far the greater illumination came from thereflected light of the great central lake of boiling lava. The sky,constantly filled with a circle of high-floating clouds formed ofvolcanic dust, the circumference of which blended away beyond thehorizon, but in the centre of which, covering a space the diameter ofwhich was about thirty miles, was a circle of light of about the samebrilliancy as that of the moon, but in appearance thousands of timeslarger. From this overhanging cloud (the City of Hili-li lay under apart of its circumference) came during the antarctic winter a mild andbeautiful light, whiter than moonlight, and lighting the island to manytimes the brilliancy of the brightest moonlight, though quite subdued incomparison with that which would have been derived from the sun ifdirectly in the zenith. Peters says that the illumination in Hili-li atits midwinter was about as intense as with us on a densely cloudy day;the light not, however, being grayish, but of a pure white, now andagain briefly tinted with orange, green, red, blue, and shades of othercolors, caused by local and temporary outbursts of those colors in theenormous crater fires.

"I will digress for a moment longer from the relation of thoseoccurrences which developed out of Pym's love affair, to say a wordconcerning some of the physical effects of this artificial light, and toexplain certain facts related by Poe in his narrative of the earlieradventures of our younger hero--I say of our younger hero, because Icannot determine in my own mind which of the two, Pym or Peters,deserves to be called the hero of their strange adventures.

"On the island of Hili-li the mean summer temperature was about 12 deg. or13 deg. Fahrenheit higher than that of winter. The almost steady temperatureof the island in winter was 93 deg. F.--occasionally dropping two or threedegrees, and, very rarely, rising one or two degrees. The extremes intemperature during the year were caused by the sun's relativeposition--constant sunlight in summer, and its complete absence inwinter. Each year, by December--the south-polar midsummermonth--vegetation has become colored; and its delicacy yet brilliancy oftintage is then very beautiful, and varied beyond that of perhaps anyother spot in the world. Peters has travelled over much of the tropicsand subtropics, and he says that only in Florida has he seen anything tocompare with the beauty of Hili-li vegetation in October and November. Ishould imagine from what he says that the coloring of vegetation is ingreat part the merest tintage, the large admixture of white giving to ita startling luminosity, and permitting the fullest effect of thoseneutral tints which are capable of combinations at once so restful andso pleasing to the refined eye. In the vegetation of Florida there isluminosity; but chromatic depth, as in most tropical coloring, is thechief characteristic of its visual effect. To hear Peters talk of theflowers of Hili-li, almost half a century after he himself viewed them,is a sympathetic treat to my sense of color. But for strangeness--and itwas not without its element of beauty, too--the vegetable growth of Julyand August in that peculiar land must exceed anything else of the kindknown to man. Think for a moment of the effect on vegetable growth ofwarmth and moisture, a rich soil, and the complete absence of sunlight!From the middle of their winter to its close, though vegetation isluxuriant, it is colorless; that is to say, it is apparently of a purewhite, though, on comparison, the faintest shades of hue arediscernible--a very light gray and a cream color prevailing. Thepeculiar grass of Hili-li, probably not indigenous yet certainlydifferent in form from any other grass, is very tender and veryluxuriant, but, even in their summer months, has a pale, almost huelessthough luminous green; whilst in winter it is almost white. Many flowersbloom in the winter, but they differ one from another only in form andin odor--they are all quite hueless. And this effect of artificial heatin connection with absence of sunlight has a similar effect on animallife, the plumage of the birds being a pure white. But in the appearanceof animals the summer sun does not produce much change--in that ofbirds, none whatever.

"This brings me to the point in Peters' story at which I may mostnaturally explain certain of Poe's statements--or, rather, of A. GordonPym's statements--which have caused more comment than any other part ofthe narrative. Hand me your Poe, please.--Here now: Poe says, quotingfrom Pym's diary:

"'On the seventeenth [of February, 1828], we set out with thedetermination of examining more thoroughly the chasm of black graniteinto which we had made our way in the first search' (this, you willrecall, was on the last island upon which they set foot before beingdriven by winds and ocean currents farther south. They were then inhiding from the barbarians of that island, and were only a few hundredmiles from the South Pole). 'We remembered that one of the fissures inthe sides of this pit had been partially looked into, and we wereanxious to explore it, although with no expectation of discovering hereany opening. We found no great difficulty in reaching the bottom of thehollow as before, and were now sufficiently calm to survey it with someattention. It was, indeed, one of the most singular-looking placesimaginable, and we could scarcely bring ourselves to believe italtogether the work of nature.' He proceeds to explain that the sides ofthe abyss had apparently never been connected, one surface being ofsoapstone, the other of black marl. The average breadth between the twocliffs was sixty feet. Here are Pym's own words again: 'Upon arrivingwithin fifty feet of the bottom [of the abyss], a perfect regularitycommenced. The sides were now entirely uniform in substance, in colorand in lateral direction, the material being a very black and shininggranite, and the distance between the two sides, at all points, facingeach other, exactly twenty yards.' The diary goes on to state that theyexplored three chasms, and that in a fissure of the third of thesePeters discovered some 'singular-looking indentures in the surface ofthe black marl forming the termination of the cul-de-sac.' It issurmised by Pym and Peters that the first of these indentures ispossibly the intentional representation of a human figure standingerect, with outstretched arm; and that the rest of them bore aresemblance to alphabetical characters--such, at least, it seems fromPym's diary, was the 'idle opinion' of Peters.

[Footnote: See Narrative of A. Gordon Pym, in any complete edition ofPoe's Works.]

"Pym later had a clew to the meaning of these characters, and no doubtrecorded the facts in a later diary, many of the pages of which Poenever saw. But if Pym and Peters had analyzed more closely theindentures, they might have gained at least the shadow of an idea of themeaning of these representations. Pym made a copy of them, as you know,and Poe here gives us a fac-simile of that copy in his Narrative. Petersnow knows in a general way of what these indentures were significant,and I will in a moment explain to you their general meaning; but firstlook at this fac-simile."

I drew up my chair to the side of Doctor Bainbridge, and together welooked at the representation of these indentures which Poe has furnishedus. Bainbridge continued:

"Now look at this first figure, which Pym says 'might have been takenfor the intentional, though rude, representation of a human figurestanding erect, with outstretched arm.' The arm, observe, is here--thearm and forearm, to my mind, separated; and directly above and parallelwith the arm is an arrow; and if we trace out the points of the compassas described in the diary, we find that the arm is pointing to thesouth, the arrow is pointing to the north; or in other words, the armpoints to Hili-li; the arrow, by inference, back to the island on whichthe indentures exist. Now among most savages the arrow, as a symbol,represents war--a fight--individual or even tribal death.

"Many centuries preceding the time at which Pym and Peters stoodexamining the indentures in the black marl, and at least five centuriesafter the foundation of Hili-li, the natives of that zone of islandsalmost surrounding the South Pole at a distance of from three hundred toseven hundred miles, were affected by one of those waves of feelingwhich perhaps once in a thousand or several thousand years sweeps asideall the common inclinations of a people, and for some reason which liesburied in unfathomable mystery moves them to a concerted action not onlyunknown in the past of those who participate in it, but, so far as canbe conceived, also unknown to the ancestors of the actors. Such a waveof impulse, when it comes, seems to affect all the individuals of everydivision of a race. In the example to which I am alluding, the impulseseemed spontaneously to move the inhabitants of islands far apart, andapparently not in communication--certainly not in direct communication.With the singleness of purpose and uniformity of action seen in an armyunder command of a leader, the natives of a hundred antarctic islandsswarmed into ten thousand fragile boats, and directed their coursetoward the south. Why toward the south? Did instinct tell them that bysuch a course the various bands would converge to a union? They knewnot. The first few boats arrived at Hili-li. Nine of every ten of thosethat began the journey were lost--but still, boats continued to arriveat the islands of the Hili-li group. Then, and after five hundred yearsof peace, the Hili-lites saw that they were to be overrun by barbarians,as their history told them their ancestors had once, in distant lands,been overrun. The Hili-lites did not have formidable weapons; butfortunately those of the invaders were scarcely more efficient. Theconflict came to a hand to hand engagement. The invaders could notreturn, even had they so desired; so they must fight and win, or die.The Hili-lites had no place of retreat, even had they been willing toflee; and they too must fight and win, or die. The invaders numberedmore than a hundred thousand men; the Hili-lites, about forty thousandthat were able to fight in such a battle. The latter armed themselveswith clubs about four feet long, one inch in diameter at the handle, twoinches in diameter at the farther extremity, and made of a wood similarto the dense tropical lignum-vitae (almost an inconceivable growth inthat comparatively sunless region); and, for additional weapons, behindnatural and artificial barriers they heaped piles of lava-blocks, sharp,jagged, and weighing each from one to five pounds. The invaders had afew very flimsy bows, scarcely six arrows to each bow--and nothing elsein the way of weapons. From all sides, on came the invaders in theirfrail boats, in one mad rush upon the main island of Hili-li, where theHili-lites had, including their women, children, and aged men, gathered.

"The invaders were ill-fed, tired out by a sea-voyage exhausting almostpast comprehension, ignorant, almost weaponless, and making a charge insmall boats; whilst for them the favorable elements in the coming battlewere that they possessed five men for each two of the defenders, andwere impelled by a mad, instinctive impulse to advance, similar to thatof a swarm of migratory locusts, which advances even through fire, andthough it require the charred bodies of ninety-nine thousand of theirnumber over which the remaining thousand may cross. The Hili-lites werewell-fed, not fatigued, intelligent, comparatively well-armed, and wereon land, prepared for the battle; whilst they possessed also theinherited Roman spirit, once lost by their ancestors, but by thedescendants recovered amid new and pure surroundings.

"Before a landing could be made, half the invaders, in the confusionincident to a bombardment with lava-blocks, were thrown from their boatsand drowned, or knocked on the head as they swam ashore. Of the otherhalf, a third were killed as they attempted to land, and another thirdwithin five minutes after they reached the shore. Then the remainingfifteen thousand or more rushed back to their boats, only to find themsunk in the shallow water near the shore--it having been quite easy foreight or ten Hili-lites to sink each boat, by bearing in unison theirweight on one gunwale--a thousand or two young Hili-lites having beenassigned to that duty. Then the poor wretches who remained threw downtheir flimsy bows, and fell face-downward on the ground, at the feet ofthe victors. Under the circumstances, what could so noble a people aswere the Hili-lites do? They could not slaughter in cold blood nearlytwenty thousand trembling human creatures. So it was finally decided tobuild a thousand large-sized row-boats, and it being the best time ofthe year for that purpose, take them back to their own islands. This wasdone. But in punishment for their offence, and as a constant reminder ofthe existence of the Hili-lites--(who, as these savages knew, haddestroyed more than eighty thousand of their number, with a loss of onlytwelve of their own killed, and thirty-seven seriously wounded--whichfact, by the bye, Peters says is inscribed on a monument in the City ofHili-li, as well as recorded in the official history of theHili-lites)--as a constant reminder, I say, of a people so powerful,they were ordered never, on any island in their group, to display anyobject of a white color--the national color of the Hili-lites. So strictand inclusive was this command, that the natives were ordered to takeeach of their descendants as soon as his teeth appeared, and color themwith an indelible, metallic blue-black dye, repeating the operationevery year up to ten, and thereafter once in five years. The commandclosed with the statement that the natives would be allowed to retainthe whites of their eyes, but only for the reason that, as they lookedat each other they would there, and only there, see the national colorof Hili-li, and so have always in mind the promise of the victors, thatif another descent on Hili-li were ever attempted, no singlenative--man, woman, or child--would be allowed to live. In addition tothis, the Hili-lites engraved on a number of suitable rocks on eachisland an inscription, briefly recording a reminder of the terribleresults of this attempt at conquest, heading each inscription with therude representation of a man with arm extended to the south, over whichand parallel with which was placed an arrow pointing to thenorth--meaning, 'There is the direction in which a certain foolishpeople may go to find quick death: from there comes war andextermination!'

"So effective were the means employed by the Hili-lites to preventfuture raids, that, though the inhabitants of these islands had againincreased, probably to a million or more, no second invasion had everbeen attempted by even the strongest and bravest of their savagechiefs."

"Well," I said, as Bainbridge paused, and seemed to be thinking justwhat to say next, "what of the beautiful Lilama and the infatuatedAhpilus? I hope poor Pym is not to have so charming a love-feast brokeninto by any untoward event. I must say, Bainbridge, those Hili-liteswere wonderfully careless of their loveliest women--of a beautiful girlof sixteen, and so close to royalty itself."

"Well, my cold-blooded friend, what will you say when I tell you thatLilama was an orphan, and had inherited from her father the only islandin the archipelago upon which precious stones were found, and that evenin that strange land she was wealthier than the king? Had she been ableto get the products of her islands into the markets of the world, shewould have been wealthier than Croesus, the Count of Monte Cristo andthe Rothschilds, all combined. However, in Hili-li, wealth wasnot--well, not an all-powerful factor; important, but not having thepower which in the remainder of the civilized world it possesses. Tohave power, money must be able to purchase human labor or its products,as only by human power is all other force utilized. In Hili-li, acitizen possessed everything that he required for his ordinary wants,and it was almost impossible to purchase the leisure time of any man. Itwas possible on certain conditions to procure human labor, but it wasextremely difficult to do so. Then, for seven or eight hundred yearsslavery had been prohibited in the land, all existing slaves having beenemancipated--after which, in the course of a few generations, Hili-lianhistory says, the slaves and the slave-spirit were lost in the mass ofthe population.

"In thinking over the position of Lilama and Pym, you must consider thatthe older members of the family would probably not soon hear of such athing as love between these two, and, even when they did hear of it,would have little doubt of being able to 'control the situation' as theyshould please. Then, with the ideas possessed by the Hili-lites, therewould not arise any very serious objection to a union by marriage ofLilama and young Pym. The Hili-lites believed the feelings to be a guideto true happiness; and whilst they would certainly have controlled thecircumstances leading up to the seemingly unwise marriage of a girl ofsixteen--for they believed also in a proper education of thefeelings--they would not have prevented even a seemingly unwisemarriage, provided the feelings of those concerned loudly demanded sucha union--I mean that if in _reason_ such a marriage should seemunwise--But enough. The hour is late, and I shall not before to-morrowevening at eight o'clock begin a description of the exciting scenesthrough which the beautiful Lilama was so soon to pass, and theadventures of Pym and Peters--adventures so terrible that for centuriesto come they will descend, a thrilling romance, from generation togeneration, in those usually quiet and peaceful islands."

And then, against my protest, he took his departure.

The THIRTEENTH Chapter

The following morning, after leaving the hotel on some trifling errand,I returned to find Arthur awaiting me. He stood by my table, andoccupied himself in turning the leaves of one of my books. He waslooking with much interest at a picture in a work on paleontology, abook which by some chance had accompanied a few selected works that Ihad brought with me from England. The picture that so interested him, Isaw as I drew nearer, represented the skeleton of a prehistoric mammothwith a man standing by its side, the latter figure placed in thepicture, no doubt, for the purpose of showing relations of size. As Istepped up close to Arthur's side, he turned a page in the book anddisclosed a still more startling representation, that of a reconstructedmammoth, wool, long coarse hair, enormous tusks, and the rest. Arthur,with his usual curiosity, wanted to be told "all about it," and I withmy usual desire to teach the searcher after knowledge even of littlethings--though a mammoth is scarcely a "little thing"--briefly gave himsome insight of the subject, running over the differences between themastodontine and the elephantine mammoth; and then remarked to him,incidentally, that an American _mastodon giganteus_, found not far fromwhere we stood, over in Missouri, a third of a century before, was nowin our British Museum, where I had seen it. Of course Arthur had manyquestions to ask concerning the "gigantic-cus" which I had actuallyseen. I gave him, from memory, the best description possible, tellinghim that it was more than twenty feet in length, about ten feet high,and so on. He seemed very thoughtful for several moments, whilst I satdown to look at my morning paper. After somewhat of a pause, he askedpermission to speak--for with all Arthur's lack of cultivation he wasnot wanting in a sense of propriety, which he usually displayed in hisrelations with those whom he liked. I gave the desired permission, whenhe said,

"I just wanted to say, sir, that I wish't you'd let me come up of anevenin' and sit off in the corner there on that chair, and hear DoctorBainbridge tell about Pym and Peters. I know you've been mighty good totell me the most of it so far, but to-night he'll tell how thatbeautiful female loves Pym, like you said early this morning he wasgoin' to; and I'm awful anxious to hear soon. Something big's goin' tohappen, and I pity the natives if they rouse up that orang-outangPeters. You said I would disturb the flowin' of Doctor Bainbridge'sretorick by goin' out and in. But I won't go out. I just won't go out;if the Boss don't like it he can lump it--I can quit. Right down thestreet I can rent a little shop-room, and a feller and me has beentalking of startin' a ice-cream saloon for the summer--yes, I can quitif the Boss don't like it. I work all day, and half the night; I can'tkeep up my system with a single drink without there's a kick a-coming;and now if I can't have a little literature when it's right in thehouse, it's a pity. No: I'll not interrup' the retorick."

Well, the end of it was, I gave my consent; and Arthur went offdelighted. I mention these facts in explanation of my position. It hasbeen said by one who ought to know, and the statement has been oftenenough quoted to evidence some general belief in its truth, thatconsistency is a jewel. I had said, that, during Doctor Bainbridge'srecitations of Dirk Peters' story, Arthur should not be present; and nowthat he will be seen in a corner of my room evening after evening, Idesire that the reader shall know all the circumstances.

That afternoon I accompanied Bainbridge on his visit to the aged sailor.I was pleased to see the old _lusus naturae_ sitting in a chair, andseemingly quite strong. Bainbridge made himself agreeable, delivered toPeters some small gifts of edibles, and then proceeded to ask a numberof questions--I presume, from their nature, concerning _minutiae_relating to the adventures under consideration. Then we returned totown, and separated.

Promptly at eight o'clock Bainbridge entered, and, as he took hiscustomary seat, cast a glance at Arthur, who sat on a chair in thecorner of the room.

"Well," began Bainbridge, after a moment's thought, "we were remarkingthat within our own knowledge and experience, true love has beenexceedingly likely to meet with obstructions to its completefruition:--and Lilama and Pym met with a similar experience in far-awayHili-li. Peters took a great interest in Pym's love affair; in fact, hehad grown almost to worship the young fellow whose life he had manytimes preserved, and who in less than a year had, under his eye, grownfrom a careless boy to a thoughtful man. Pym returned the liking of hisold companion and benefactor; but Peters' sentiment was one ofinfatuation, such as only those persons who are 'close to nature' seemcapable of feeling in its fullest development. When the feeling of whichI speak exists in its most intense form, it includes a devotion equal tothat of the dog for its master: it is wholly instinctive, and not eventhe certainty that death stalks in the path between can keep it from itsobject.

"One morning early, there was excitement in the ducal palace. Lilama wasmissing. Search was diligently made. Pym was wild with excitement; andas the morning wore on Peters grew almost mad. (I shall speak ofmorning, afternoon, evening, and night. The degree of light in Hili-lidid not now vary in the twenty-four hours; but it is necessary that Ishould in some manner divide the day, and our usual method seems thebest.) The Duke himself arrived at about ten o'clock, by which time thesearch had ceased, and what to do next had become the question. The Dukeappeared surprised at something, and spoke a few words to his son, ayoung man of twenty-two or twenty-three, by name Diregus, who thereuponlooked slightly foolish, as one does who has made some puerile mistake.The Duke appeared to feel a real touch of pity for Pym, who satdejected, a picture of intense anguish, now and then casting abeseeching look at the Duke--the only person who, to his mind, might beable to assist him to regain his sweetheart. The Duke again spoke to hisson, who, turning to Pym, motioned him to accompany them. Then, followedby Peters, they walked down to the shore, and entered a boat.

"From the moment of starting, every movement of the Hili-lites seemed asif prearranged. It was a peculiarity of this people that a number ofthem acting together talked very little, each of the party appearing toknow the wishes and intentions of the others, without a word spoken. Andso was it on this occasion. Scarcely a word was uttered, and each seemedto comprehend the wishes of the others, mainly by glances and bysemi-involuntary movements. In the present instance, father and son didnot once glance at each other, yet the son was evidently aware of eachwish of the father. They finally came to a landing, across the bay, inthe suburbs of the city most distant from the locality in which stoodthe ducal palace. There, some four hundred feet from the shore, amidgiant trees, in spacious and seemingly neglected grounds, stood a verylarge residence, evidently many centuries old, and of a style ofarchitecture not seen by the Americans elsewhere in Hili-li. Thebuilding had an eerie look, and as the party drew near to it Petersobserved that but one of its wings was inhabited, the remainder of themansion being in a state of almost complete decay. They all entered by aside doorway into the inhabited wing. Pym and Peters were motioned toseats in the hallway, the Duke remarking, in hushed tones, 'The home ofMasusaelili,' as he and Diregus passed through a broken and decayingdoorway into apartments beyond. Soon Diregus returned, and, escortingPym and Peters through several disordered rooms, finally paused before alarge curtained doorway. Then Diregus spoke, but in a hushed voice, andwith an awed solemnity that chilled his hearers through and through.

"'Fear not,' he said; 'no harm will befall you. If the benign Fate is tosmile--well; if the Furies are to rage, we can but bow to the Will thathas held in its hand for countless cycles this petty planet--a grain inthe wastes of Eternity. Come!'

"He passed through the doorway, and the two followed him. The room theyentered was spacious--almost thirty feet square. It was crowded withstrange devices, and was lighted by six colored swinging globes. Astrange odor filled the atmosphere of the apartment. The room wasbrilliantly enough illuminated, though the light was variously coloredand its shades and blendings were confusing; whilst the strange,intoxicating perfume also helped to perplex the senses. If the apartmenthad contained not more than several objects, the visitors might soonhave detected and observed all of them; but, as it was, Pym and Petersstood gazing confusedly about them, momentarily beholding fresh objects,all of them strange, many of them bizarre, some of them frightful. Itwas apparently at the same instant of time that the sight of Pym andPeters fell upon an object so awesome that their hearts almost ceased tobeat, and then bounded on with throbs that sent the cold blood leapingdown their spines and to their scalps in chilling waves that ceased onlywhen their terror reached the numbing stage. There before them, not sixfeet away, among great cubes of crystal, and vast retorts, and enormousvase-like objects on the floor, stood an aged man. How aged? He was oldwhen the antarctic barbarians were slain, and their remnant sent back toits home on those dreary islands to live forever in blackness. None knewhow old he was--they, the rulers, knew not; or if they did, on thatsubject they were silent. Some said that on the ship which brought thenucleus of their race from Rome, came Masusaelili with the others--anaged man, the oldest on the vessel. There he stood before the visitors,his white beard trailing on the tiling at his feet, his shrunken formerect. But, whence the terror? Three times ere I could learn this fact(and even then I learned it more by inference than by words) did Peterssink into delirium, muttering, 'Oh, those eyes--the eyes of a god--of agod of gods.' The aged man seated himself at a small Roman table, and,turning to the Duke without a question, said in a voice unlike any othervoice in all the world--steady, but thin, high-pitched, sharp,penetrating and agitating depths within the hearer never reached before,

"'You come for knowledge of The Lily. Behold!'

"He pointed to a cube of crystal near him, which, Peters will swear, wasa moment earlier perfectly transparent. But now it looked as if filledwith milk of purest whiteness. As they gazed at it, a fire appeared inthe centre; and soon around the fire there sprang into being a circularrange of mountains, and on the side of one of these--the nearest--stoodtwo persons.

"'Lilama--Ahpilus,' screamed Diregus; 'he has stolen her away!'

"Yes: for though Pym and Peters had never seen the exiled lover, theyrecognized Lilama; and even they could surmise the rest.

"'The youth is mad,' said the Duke. 'We must rescue our darling from themaniac.'

"Pym, in his impatience, was about to rush from the room; but the oldman beckoned for him to approach. He did as desired. Then the aged manplaced a hand upon Pym's head, and drew it down to him; and the man whohad lived thousands of years whispered some words into the ear of theyouth who had lived not yet four lustrums. As Peters described for me inhis homely way the change that came over the face of Pym as that humanmillenarian spoke perhaps one hundred words into the young man's ear, Iwas reminded of reading as a boy, some years ago, a description of theburning somewhere in South America of a great cathedral. The fireoccurred during a morning service, and with the alarm the doorways ofthe building were at once obstructed by a mass of struggling humanity.Some two or three thousand persons were consumed in this terribleholocaust. The correspondent who wrote the description of the fire ofwhich I speak said that for ten minutes he stood outside the cathedralafter the surrounding heat had become so intense that efforts at rescueceased, and from a raised spot he looked through the windows from whichthe glass had crumbled--looked across the great window-sills raisedeight feet from the cathedral floor, looked into the faces of thedoomed. And as he gazed, he saw the faces of many maidens with theirlovers by their side--(it was a gala day, and all were in their bestattire). As he looked, within a brief ten minutes he saw horror-strickeneyes gaze at the approaching fire, and at other victims sixty feet awayalready burning; then quickly would the fire approach the owner of thoseeyes, reach him, consume him: And in those fleeting moments the face ofa young girl would pass through every stage from youth to extreme age,and then sink down in death. As the aged mystic whispered to Pym, theyoung man's face turned ghastly, then worked convulsively, then settledinto firm resolve. And Peters never again saw on the face of the youthwhom he loved with the love of a mother and of a father in one--neveragain saw the old, careless, boyish smile. Did the old man--shall wecall him a man?--did the old man whisper into Pym's ear the secret ofeternity? Would such a revelation have changed youth to manhood in ahundred seconds?

"As Pym was led by Diregus from the room, Peters started to follow; butthe aged mystic motioned for him, too, to approach. Peters says thatafter what he had just seen he felt much more like taking to flight thanhe did like obeying the summons; but he obeyed it. The old man pointedto one of the smaller crystal cubes, which would have measured some fivefeet across. As Peters gazed upon it, it began to take on the milky huewhich he had before witnessed. Peters says that at first he thoughtthese cubes were of solid crystal, but after he witnessed the strangealterations of which they were capable, he believed they were hollow. Hecontinued to gaze as directed, and soon he saw, sitting at a table, witha lighted candle by her side, knitting, his poor old mother, from whoseside he had, fifteen years before, when a thoughtless, wicked boy, ranaway to sea. He had never seen her again--he has not seen her again tothe present day. As he gazed upon that aged, wrinkled face--that hard,Indian face (his mother was a civilized Indian), he saw that look whichman sees nowhere else on sea or land save only in a mother's face. Hethrew himself face-downward on the floor, and wrung in agony his hands,and moaned out pleas for forgiveness; but the poor, old, fragile formknitted on, and on, and the face was never raised. Alas! why must we allfeel the full force of a mother's love and sacrifices only when toolate? Why must it be that the deepest of all unselfish love goes everunrewarded?

"Peters scarcely knows how he got from the room. He staggered out intothe grounds, and saw that the remainder of the party were already seatedin the boat.

"But I must hasten on. Let me say in a few words, that the partyreturned to the ducal palace, and immediately prepared to rescue Lilamafrom the power of her discarded lover, the exiled Ahpilus. The rescueparty, on the advice of the Duke, was small. He explained to Peters thatso far as mere human force was concerned, a thousand men could neverrescue the maiden. Her return to them, alive and in health, would dependupon strategy, or possibly might be accomplished as a result of somesuperhuman individual effort. He was of opinion, he remarked--and hejudged from what he had been told by government officials latelyreturned from 'Crater Mountains' and also from changes in the young manobserved by himself preceding the sentence of banishment--that Ahpiluswas a maniac. The Duke went on to say that he really felt but littlehope of ever again seeing, alive, his loved young 'cousin.' Then heexplained that, whilst there were spots on 'Crater Mountains,' from fiveto eight miles from the central crater, on the far side of the nearerhills, hot enough to roast a large animal, there were other spots on thefar side of the remoter mountain ranges where, protected from craterradiation and exposed to antarctic air-currents, the temperature wasalmost always far below the freezing-point, and sometimes so cold thatno animal life, even antarctic animal life, could endure it for an hour.He said that poor Lilama was lost, unless some other exile should saveher--which was unlikely, even if possible--or unless we could inventsome plan of capture so peculiar as to baffle the madman--a man, by thebye, of enormous physical strength, and with a madman's cunning. Petersstood drinking in every word spoken by the Duke; whilst Pym listened asif heartbroken, but in an impatient, anxious way, indicative of arestless impulse to be gone. The Duke continued to instruct and advisethem, until a large sail-boat was provisioned and manned, when therescue party hastened away on its errand of love and mercy.

"The party consisted of the young man Diregus, Lilama's cousin; of Pymand Peters; and of six boatmen, who might or might not be employeddirectly in the attack and rescue, as should later seem best. The partyhad no weapons other than a few peculiarly-shaped clubs, similar tothose mentioned by me in describing the fight of the early Hili-litesagainst the invading barbarians, and a long dirk-knife in the possessionof Peters.

"By glancing at this map of Hili-liland, you will observe that thesea-course to 'Crater Mountains' was almost direct, it lying in astraight line out of Hili-li Bay and across the open sea for thirtymiles. They were to enter 'Volcano Bay,' which pursued a tortuous courseamid the mountains, until they should reach a certain pass between twoof the highest mountains in the whole range. In the centre of one ofthese mountains was a peak some eight miles high, named by the foundersof Hili-li 'Mount Olympus.' It was possible to sail (or to push theirboat) to within seven miles of a point where the lavabed was still redhot--about thirteen miles from the edge of the central, white-hot,boiling lava. This, however, they did not do; first, because the passmentioned, which was the best course up into the mountains, began aboutthree or four miles short of the inner extremity of Volcano Bay; andsecond, because within a mile or two of that extremity the water of thebay sometimes actually boiled, and the heat would there be quiteunendurable."

Here Bainbridge paused for a moment, and then continued, "Well, myattentive friend, 'the witching hour' approaches. We lost too much timein discussion this evening--What! only ten o'clock?" he said, looking athis watch. "Well, I am at a good resting-place in the story, anyway, asyou will to-morrow evening admit. Why, if I started you up into thosemountains to-night, we should get no sleep before daylight. No, no:'sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof; more I would'--how does itgo? Well, it means that the evils of two days should not be crowded intoone day. The attempted quotation--as generally happens when I attemptquotation from the Bible--is a double failure: not a success simply inaccuracy of repetition; and, at best, not appropriate. For I have more,and a great deal more. But"--rising from his chair--"I must depart. Soadieu until the morrow--and good-night to you."

He had not been gone five minutes, and I was just complimenting Arthuron his silence and otherwise commendable behavior, when Doctor Castletonbounced into the room. He knew in a general way the drift of Peters'story, up to the developments of the evening before. His curiosity tohear what Doctor Bainbridge had so patiently and laboriously gleanedfrom Peters did not seem intense, or it was wonderfully well suppressed.Still, he liked briefly to learn from me the outlines of the story, andhad not failed to meet me at some period of each day, and to hint at adesire for information. Therefore, I knew with what object he had thisevening come to see me, and I ran rapidly over the facts developed thepreceding evening, and then over those of that evening.

"Yes, yes," he said, "I see, I see. Rich people, but money no good; poorpeople, but poverty no hardship. That's Bainbridge's nonsense--he nevergot anything out of Peters along that line. Money, but money no value!Oh, well; Bainbridge is young and full of theories. The next thing he'llbe saying that they've found a way in Hili-li to make life as valuableand agreeable for the lazy and the vile as for the industrious and moralclasses. He's just philosophizing to suit himself. Why, a people wouldhave money if they had to make it out of their own hides, and the moneywould have value, too--yes, and labor-purchasing value. No people willever have all they want, for they will invent new wants forever, andmore rapidly than the old wants can be gratified. They may get all theyrequire of food and clothing, and that, too, in exchange for next to nowork; but they will always want things that they are unable to procure.So long as people do different kinds of work--supply the community withdifferent necessaries--they will trade; and when they trade,common-sense will soon invent a circulating medium. And so long as oneman is the mental or the physical superior of another, and fills more ofthe demands of the community than another, he will have the means ofgratifying more of his own wants than the other man; and as differencesincrease, and different temperaments develop their varyingpropensities--some anticipating their ability to expend, others desiringto accumulate for the everlasting rainy day--there will, and necessarilymust, arise stable methods of preserving values. Oh, pshaw! Who wants tomake all men--and all women, too--in a single mental and physicalmould?--and a mighty insignificant mould at that? The world is not madebetter by ease and plenty, but by hardship. Ease and plenty come not butas a reward of striving. When every man is like every other man, and allare too lazy to want anything, the reign of money will be ended.

"Why not enroll the whole world, and have a great army in civil life,constantly under command, with the nature of its wants and their form ofgratification fixed or regulated by--well, by a majority of these doughmen? That's the only way I know for the people to get rid of acirculating medium, and live."

He paused for a moment, both in his locution, and in his walk back andforward across the floor. Then he resumed both:

"I do not know of anything quite so idiotic as is this howl directedagainst the possession of wealth. I myself am a poor man: if I do notearn a living each year, I go hungry or go in debt. But I would nottrade off my chances of a competency and of wealth--a reasonableambition for every man in England and America--no, not to see every richman on earth starve--or even sent to hell. This howl is the mark of aplebeian, or at least of a wickedly childish cast of intellect. I knowof nothing quite so foolish, and of nothing half so brutal. TheJew-baiting folly is a phase of the same nonsense. It is foolish,because if the possession of capital is denied to the men who can bestacquire and hence best continue to employ it, then commercialcivilization must take a back seat--in fact, go, and go to stay; andthis means abject poverty for everybody but a handful of state andchurch aristocrats. It is brutal, because it is unreasoning andmistakenly vindictive. It is the howl of the mentally weak--of the mob;and the mob is always brutal.

"If we are to suppress those whose possessions evidence a past or apresent performance of some service that the world demanded and paidfor, we cast aside the useful of the earth: we know that theirpossessions were gained, not from the pauper, but from those who heldmaterial wealth; and I know, and can most solemnly swear, from personalexperience, that in this world nobody gets anything for nothing.

"Oh, the first French revolution! The French revolution was all right.The fight was not against commercial wealth, but against a corruptchurch, state, and social order. And nobody maintains that thecommercial class is immaculate: every class should come under theregulation of good statutory law. I only claim that it would be wrongand foolish to take away in whole or in part the accumulations of thecommercial class. With us the only wealthy citizens are commercialpeople, and those who have acquired wealth through them, for with ushere, at this time, the wealthy owners of realty are commercial men whohave put their surplus money into land. Oh, yes: control them; but it'snot the business men of the world who need the most looking after."

And with that he shot out of the room and down the stairs; and I soonafter retired to rest.

The FOURTEENTH Chapter

The next evening at an early hour Arthur was seated in the leastconspicuous corner of my room, a spot which he seemed to have selectedas his own; and, as usual, Doctor Bainbridge entered promptly at eighto'clock. After the customary minute or two of thoughtful quiet, and aglance at the map of Hili-li, which each evening I kept spread on mytable in the centre of the room, Bainbridge continued his recital:

"Last evening brought us to the moment when the rescue party, havingentered Volcano Bay, were about to land at the foot of the greatmountain, called Olympus--the Hili-li synonym for Mount preceding thename Olympus when the peak, some eight miles high, was referred to. Nowif you will examine this map with a little care you will observe here,near the inner extremity of Volcano Bay, an apparently narrow inletpassing directly into the mountain-side. This does not represent aninlet from the bay, but an outlet from Crater Lake, a very deep lake,the surface of which is several thousand feet below its banks, the lakebeing on the top of the mountain, just south of Mt. Olympus, andemptying into Volcano Bay. This outlet is a small stream at the bottomof a chasm which cannot correctly be represented on my map, as it isrelatively very narrow, being only from ten to one hundred feet inwidth. This chasm is what we here term a canyon, or _canon_, the wallsof which in this instance rise perpendicularly from the water to theaverage height of ten thousand feet. The paths up the mountain are onthe sides of this outlet--not close to the water, but winding in and outalong the mountain-side above, there being a passable way on each sideof the canyon from the bay to the lake, the distance from bay to lakealong either path being, in its tortuous course, about thirteen miles.At Crater Lake the mountain rises to a height of about six miles, thesurface of the lake being about four miles above the sea level, itsbanks some ten thousand feet in height. A perfectly straight line downthe mountain-side would measure about eight or nine miles.

"As the canyon leaves the bay, its walls are about a hundred feet high,and are separated by about the same distance; but as the mountain isascended, the walls rapidly rise, and soon become far above the waterbetween, and they gradually approach each other. At certain points thewalls actually overhang the stream below, and almost meet, at one spotapproximating to within ten feet of each other. Three miles from the baythe walls are twenty feet apart, and for the remaining five miles theydo not at any place approach closer, but on the other hand verygradually separate to about sixty feet at the extreme top. At five milesfrom the bay the walls are fully ten thousand feet in altitude, and arenowhere less in height from that point to the edge of Crater Lake.

"Our party started up the mountain on one side of this canyon, or giantchasm, Diregus appearing in some way to know that this was the propercourse to pursue. When they were some three miles on their way, a youngman was seen approaching, but on the opposite side of the chasm. He wasa young fellow of prepossessing appearance, dressed in plain, coarseloathing, and having the elastic movement and grace of the betterclasses. Peters observed, when only the width of the chasm separated thetwo, that the young Hili-lite had a laughing eye, full of latentmischief, but also of intelligence.

"He was known to Diregus, and the two began a conversation. He was oneof the exiles, by name Medosus. Diregus soon ascertained that the exileshad long known Ahpilus to be insane; that, three days before, hiscondition had become much aggravated, and that on the preceding day hehad suffered from an attack of raving mania which lasted several hours.Medosus did not know of the abduction of Lilama, but he had three hoursearlier seen Ahpilus a mile or two from Crater Lake.

"When the party heard this, they were anxious to proceed, but Medosus inturn had a few questions to ask, and in common courtesy Diregus wascompelled to wait and reply to the poor exile's interrogatories.

"Whilst the two conversed, Medosus took from his pocket some dry, brown,crumpled leaves, and put a wad of them into his mouth, much as would anAmerican planter who raises tobacco and chews the unprepared leaf. NowPeters was a lover of tobacco, and the sight of this action, sosuggestive of his loved weed, excited him greatly, as he had not so muchas seen a scrap of tobacco for months. When it developed that it wastobacco that Medosus had placed in his mouth, and that in some of thevalleys between these mountains a species of wild tobacco grew, Peterswas determined to have some of it, the craving of months seeming so nearto gratification; and he asked Medosus to give him a little of it, tolast until he could procure a fuller supply. Medosus was perfectlywilling to grant this request; but on rolling up a wad and attempting tothrow it across the chasm, it fell into the abyss and fluttered downwardto the water nearly two miles below. He was about to make a secondeffort, when Peters stopped him, and then a pretty, though a reallyterrible thing happened--to relate which was the real purpose of thisdigression from my story proper.

"Peters was at the moment standing some fifteen feet from the edge ofthe chasm, the chasm being at this point about twenty feet inwidth--twenty feet in width, and even here, where it was two thousandfeet less in depth than it was a mile higher up, at least eight thousandfeet in descent--sheer to the raging torrent and the huge, jaggedlava-bowlders below. It was all done so quickly that none of the partyhad time to become alarmed. Peters, whose arms when he hung them reachedto within four inches of his feet, stooped just enough to bring hishands to the ground. Then, as a lame man using crutches might swinghimself along, but with lightning-like swiftness, Peters took two rapidjumps toward the edge of the chasm, the second jump landing him directlyon its edge. Then he shot up and out into the air over that awful abyss,and landed on the opposite side as gently as a cat lands from a six-footleap; and it did not seem to require of him an unusual effort. Hereceived his tobacco, and turned to make the leap back.

"When Peters mentioned to me the circumstance of this leap, it was onlybecause he had at the time it was made been so interested in theincident of getting the tobacco, that he never forgot the occurrence; infact, it seems to have impressed his mind and memory almost as deeply asdid the old man with the 'snow-drift beard and the eyes of a god.'

"I attempted to get out of Peters just how he made the leap--whetherwith the legs, or the arms, or both as an impelling force; but it was nouse. I believe that he does not himself know--he did it by an animalinstinct, and that is all there is to be said. The old fellow does notreally know his age, but I should place it, at the present time, at fromseventy-eight to eighty years, which, if correct, would indicate that hewas twenty-eight or thirty at the time he was in Hili-li. He must havebeen as strong generally as three average men, and in the arms as strongas five or six such men. You remember telling me yourself how he twistedthat iron poker, and broke the oak pole; and that was the act of aninvalid nearly eighty years of age. Oh, he must have been a Samson attwenty-eight, and as agile as a tiger. What I could draw out of himconcerning the leap, reminded me of descriptions I have read of the_Simiidae_--particularly of the Borneo orang-outang.

"But to return: The party separated from Medosus, who, when about twohundred feet away, shouted back, 'You'd better stay with us, Diregus. Wedo not here have to hide away when we play--or at--' (mentioning thenames of two very rough games prohibited by law on all the islands ofthe Hili-li Kingdom--games corresponding to our foot-ball and ourwrestling). The party continued up the mountain-side, resting as theyfelt the need of rest. No preparation for the darkness of night wasnecessary; for here the crater-light was very bright--in some unshadedspots it was even painfully brilliant.

"After several hours of laborious ascent, the small party of four(Diregus had taken with them only one of the boatmen) came within plainsight of the rim of Crater Lake, half a mile ahead of them, and almostperpendicularly above, though nearly two miles away measured along theshortest route that travellers might pursue. It was not at the timeknown, and therefore never will be known, whether or not Lilama hadcaught a glimpse of her approaching friends; but at that moment apiercing scream rang through the air from above. Peters thinks thatLilama saw some of the party, because the quality of the scream was notsuch as to convey an impression that she was in instant danger. Thesignal, if signal it was, was not repeated, nor did the party wait for arepetition. They all hurried onward with renewed vigor; and, in a shorttime, considering the severity of the ascent, had reached a point nearwhich they supposed the scream must have been uttered.

"The party had scattered, and were searching among the mammothlava-bowlders, and in the small side valleys and fissures; Peters,however, as he then always instinctively did, keeping by the side ofPym. The two had separated to quite a distance from the others, when,being then quite close to the edge of the great chasm, they heard a deepthough penetrating voice say the one word (of course in the Hili-lilanguage), 'Well?'

"Looking in the direction from which the voice came, they saw on theopposite side of the chasm a young and handsome man, dressed much as wasthe exile, Medosus. There could not for a moment be any doubt in theminds of Pym and Peters concerning the identity of this young man; butif there had been, it would immediately have been dispelled.

"'Well, gentlemen?' the voice further said.

"Pym and Peters had stepped up close to the edge of the abyss, whichhere was, as it was throughout the upper third of its length, fromforty-five to fifty-five feet in width (Peters thinks that at this partof its course it was fully fifty feet broad).

"'Well, gentlemen: why are you two, strangers to me, and to my people,also, I think--why are you here?'

"The speaker would have seemed very far from insane, had it not been forhis large black eyes, shifting and glittering in the bright volcaniclight.

"At last Pym spoke:

"'Sir,' he said, very calmly, 'we came to assist our friends of theneighboring island--friends who have been very kind to us--to search fora maiden who by some strange mischance has been lost from herpeople--from her people and her friends, who grieve sorely over theirloss.'

"'Ah, ha,' said Ahpilus--for it was he--'very good. And they grieve, dothey? Curse them, let them grieve! And a certain lover--and curse him,too--does he grieve? He would better! Ah, ha, ha, ha'--the voice risingwith each syllable, until the last was almost shrieked at Pym--'Kind toyou, were they? Well, there is one of them near by--on this side thechasm, curse you--who won't be kind to you again. Yes, and you may seeher, too.' Then Ahpilus stepped off behind some thick, stunted bushes ofa variety of evergreen, whence, in a moment, he returned, leading by thewrist Lilama. 'Great Jove above! Girl, do you see your lover over there?You have no love for me--you never had; but never again in time or ineternity shall I lie with burning brain, thinking of those snowy armsabout the stranger's neck--aye, as once I saw them in the palacegrounds. Curse you all, and may you all alike be d----d. Why should astranger come through ten thousand perils to add to all my untoldagonies.' Here for a moment his voice softened, almost to a gentlewhisper. 'Ah, Lilama, once, only once, you shall, of your own free will,clasp those arms around me--if not in love, then in terror. A momentmore, and over this abyss together we shall go!' With terror in hiseyes, Pym glanced at Peters; and even the phlegmatic Peters wasstartled. 'Yes, for one moment in each other's arms; and then for me,the everlasting darkness of Tartarus, or of endless oblivion.'

"As he talked, he had dropped the wrist of Lilama, and she crouched uponthe ground with her hands before her face, whilst Ahpilus continued torave, and to pace from the chasm's edge away and back again, in maniacstrides, until he had almost beaten where he paced a pathway. There wasnot the slightest necessity for Ahpilus to guard Lilama, for the awfulchasm was more than twice the width that any sane and normal man, evenan athlete, would dare attempt to leap, even to preserve his own life;and the distance to be traversed to gain a point in the chasm so narrowthat an ordinary man would dare attempt to leap it, was several milesdown the mountain-side; so that Lilama was at least ten miles beyond thereach of Pym, though less than eighty feet away.

"The mental strain on poor Pym was almost enough to make him a madman.There strode the maniac, to and from the edge of the abyss,rhythmically, rarely varying the distance by a yard--twenty yards off,then back again, then away. On every third or fourth approach he steppedliterally to the edge of the chasm, and glanced down, ten thousand feetto where the stream below looked like the finest silver thread, lightedby the dazzling light from the giant crater, reflected into everysmallest fissure. Now and again the madman would lash himself into afury, and stop for a moment to gaze at Lilama, who never moved from hercrouching position some ten feet from the canyon's brink. Even Peters,the stoic, was moved--but moved to anger rather than to grief or fear.He inwardly chafed, and madly raved, by turns, at the impotency of hisposition; whilst Pym seemed frozen into statuesque despair. How muchlonger would this scene of terror last? Oh, the thought of that awfulleap into space! The maniac might any moment end the scene--each time ashe approached in that wild rush backward and forward might be the last.The slightest move, the slightest sound, might precipitate the direcalamity--and Lilama as well as Pym and Peters seemed to feel thistruth. The madman, like the wild beast, appears to need an extraneousstimulus, be it ever so slight, to suggest an initiative: the crookingof a finger, the whispering of a word, may be sufficient, but it must besomething.--Ah! Has the moment come? Has the insane man caught somesound inaudible to the others? He pauses. Yes, he is going to act.

"'Oh! friend,' wailed Pym to Peters, in a low voice, 'save her, saveher, or where she goes, there go I.'